Nellie Mae Rowe

 

About 1968, give or take a year or two, commuting, I sometimes went thru Vinings coming home from work.  Along that same time a friend’s first cousin, who was about our age, was killed in her car, when hit by a train there.

That may be why I went through Vinings those times, to check out the accident scene.  Her name is Sandy. 

On one side of the tracks was an old house which had some unusual decorations:  little plastic dolls, notes, cards, empty cigarette packages, and anything one might throw out waiting on a train to pass.

 

I was amused.  I pulled over to take some pictures to share with Navy friends I communicated with.  When I did, I was soon joined by the owner, Mrs. Nellie Mae Rowe.  She was happy that I appreciated her stuff and  showed me around. She pointe out that she used bubble gum  to adhere the little objects.

She also invited me inside.  She had a room dedicated to Marin Luther King, a kind of a shrine.

 

She was an artist too.  She had some canvas art.  Very folk artsie.  She was a very gentle and complex lady.

 

I don’t remember if she told me her name then or not.  I was pleased when years later  we came across a special section the High Museum that had  her work.  Her name is Nellie Mae Rowe, born on the 4^th of July in Fayette County, Ga and died 1982 in Cobb County.

 

Unfortunately, her home was swallowed by big modernoffice buildings.  Make way for progress, as they say.

 

I wrote about Nellie Mae this weekend because the Marietta Daily Journal, this weekend Edition, has an article about her.

 

The pictures by and  of her I lifted all the Internet.

Check out this link:

https://thisworldisnotmyown.com/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0KzstDb_oj0OyYHBsFepXZ87ezVCjZhlGJ7CBw7eaIWiNjK6INpGPzWHE_aem_AcSeUMNuSsoBj__C_1wUnHpPIjocKniImwXoxCDzU3ZYLqjUNvAY-LKnl7i3VHuXvo1UFwQQGNMN1nC